The present invention provides a housing to hold a control device that includes heat-producing components. The control device can be, for example, an inverter, a converter stage, an inverse rectifier, or another control device that comprises electrical and/or electronic elements.
German patent 34 12 510 discloses a die-cast aluminum housing that comprises a rear wall and two side walls. The rear wall is provided with cooling ribs, where a cooling fan or cooling blower is affixed at the bottom of the housing. In the outside walls of the housing, openings are broken or formed at the top and the bottom of the housing, which are provided to hold interchangeable housing walls, which are provided with openings and ducts for connecting cables. The heated air located in the interior rises upwards due to convection, and exits through the top openings, while outside air enters through the bottom openings. The electrical components, for example diodes and transistor modules, are part of the control device and are affixed so that they are in good heat-conductive contact with the rear wall, which has cooling ribs on the outside. A printed circuit board or printed board assembly, on which electronic components for the control device are installed, is affixed in the housing in removable manner. The side walls are structured in such a way that they enclose the cooling ribs and the housing can be installed on a carrier plate, resulting in closed cooling channels. The removable cover plate is made of plastic and completely seals the housing when the control device is assembled in the housing and wired.
European patent application 0 356 991 discloses an inverter that consists of a two-part housing, namely a lower and an upper box. The lower box consists of die-cast aluminum with cooling ribs on one outer side, where the cooling ribs are enclosed towards the side and a cooling fan is affixed at the bottom of this lower box. The open cooling channels formed by the cooling ribs are closed when the inverter is installed on an assembly plate. The heat-producing components of the inverter are installed on the bottom of the lower box. In addition, this bottom has a holder device for an intermediate circuit capacitor, the capacitors of which project into the stream produced by the fan. This lower box of the housing is hermetically sealed by a cover plate which is structured as a cooling element. A control and regulation circuit board is installed on this cover plate, at a distance from it, and is electrically connected with the components in the lower box by means of cables. The upper box is structured as a lid which is connected with the lower box in removable manner. A control panel is housed in this lid. This lid consists of an insulating material, for example plastic.
European patent application 0 449 640 discloses an electrical device that has a cooling element that has several openings. These openings hold electrical components and these components electrically connected with each other by means of a printed circuit board. A control and regulation circuit board is affixed at a distance from this circuit board. A lid of insulating material covers this circuit board and is removably connected with the cooling element.
Siemens brochure "SIMOVERT PX--Spannungszwischenkreis-Umrichter 6SE60 fur dynamische, burstenlose Antriebe" [SIMOVERT PX--Intermediate circuit voltage converter 6SE60 for dynamic, brushless drives], Order No. E20001-P181-A419 discloses housings for converters in a so-called book size format. They allow several housings to be placed next to one another, for example for multi-motor drives. In a housing in the book size format, the supporting element is the cooling element. The housing is structured to be enclosed on all sides, and is made of sheet steel, in order to ensure a high level of electromagnetic compatibility. Such devices can easily be installed in a cabinet wall. All connections are made from below, via screwless cage drawspring terminals. The control panel, consisting of several parameter setting keys and a display, is housed in a frontal narrow side of the housing. The cooling element at the rear narrow side of the housing has an attachment plate which has a hanger at the top end and an attachment at the bottom end. This plate also seals off the open cooling channels.
From the Siemens brochure "SIMOVERT PM--Das modulare Umrichtersystem 6SM1 fur Mehrmotorantriebe" [SIMOVERT PM--The converter system 6SM1 for multi-motor drives], Order No. E20001-P181-A439, a modular converter system is known which consists of a feed unit, central electronics, a direct-current intermediate circuit rail and up to sixteen inverter units. The inverter modules have the same height and therefore the same connection and attachment grid dimensions, and are connected to the direct-voltage rail via a snap connector. The components of the inverter modules include an intermediate circuit fuse, intermediate circuit capacitors and choke, a transistor pulse converter, an output choke, a control and regulation electronics module in an electronics box with a free space for optional modules, fan, a cooling element with temperature monitor and a control terminal strip. The support element is, once again, the cooling element, to which the side walls are attached. These side walls serve as carrier plates for the electronics box and the electrical module, which comprises a power section, several control modules, intermediate circuit capacitors and chokes, etc. A front cover, a cover and bottom plate are still removably attached to these parts (cooling element, side walls). The bottom and cover plate have perforations to allow heat to be removed from the interior of the module.
In all these housing types, the housing consists of several parts which must be connected with one another after control device components have first been attached to them. The cooling element serves as the support element to which the other components or parts of a control device are attached by means of assembly parts (i.e., spacers, assembly plates). When this assembly technology is used, some components of the control device are no longer easily accessible. In addition, the assembly of such a housing is very complicated and time-intensive, comprising many different assembly steps.